Eat Out Eat Well

Shopping, Cooking, Baking

Grilling? Five Ways to Decrease Dangerous Stuff From Forming On Your Food

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Two types of cancer causing compounds increase or form in some foods that are grilled or cooked at high heat.

Two Dangerous Compounds

Heterocycline amines (HCAs) increase when meat — especially beef — is cooked with high heat – not just by grilling but by pan-frying, too. HCAs can damage DNA and start the development of cancer.  Most evidence connects them to colon and stomach cancer, but they may be linked to other types of cancer, too.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) increase with grilling because they form in smoke and can get deposited on the outside of meat.

Five Things You Can Do

Here are five things you can do to decrease the formation of HCAs and PAHs:

  1. Cook or fry at lower temperatures to produce fewer HCAs.   You can turn the  gas down or wait for the charcoal’s low-burning embers.
  2. Raise your grilling surface up higher and turn your meat very frequently to reduce charring — which is highly carcinogenic. Grilling fish takes less cooking time and forms fewer HCAs than beef, pork and poultry.
  3. Marinate your meat.  According to the American Institute for Cancer Research, marinating can reduce HCA formation by as much as 92 to 99%. Scientists think that the antioxidants in marinades help block HCA formation.
  4. Add some spices and rubs. Rosemary and turmeric, for example, seem to block up to 40% of HCA formation because of their antioxidant activity. A study by Kansas State University found that rubbing rosemary onto meat before grilling greatly decreased HCA levels.  Basil, mint, sage, and oregano may be effective, too.
  5. Select leaner cuts of meat and trim excess fat to help reduce PAHs. Leaner cuts drip less fat – and dripping fat causes flare-ups and smoke which can deposit PAHs on your food.

Another Big Reason To Up Your Daily (Soluble) Fiber

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Fat is fat.  Right??? Wrong!!!  It turns out that even though most of us hate the way it looks, the fat right under the skin, called subcutaneous fat, isn’t as dangerous as the fat deep in the belly, called visceral fat, that surrounds your organs.

A study, published in the journal Obesity, of 1,114 African Americans and Hispanic Americans — population groups disproportionally at higher risk of developing high blood pressure and diabetes and for accumulating visceral fat — identified some simple ways to zero in on and reduce visceral fat. They are:

  • eat more vegetables high in soluble fiber
  • eat more fruit and beans
  • make sure you engage in moderate activity.

Why Is Visceral Fat So Dangerous?

According to the study’s lead researcher, “a higher rate of visceral fat is associated with high blood pressure, diabetes and fatty liver disease.” The results of the study showed there can be a big health impact from making the few simple changes listed above.

The researchers found that visceral fat was reduced by 3.7% over five years for every 10 gram increase in soluble fiber the subjects ate per day. Over the same time period, an increase in moderate physical activity resulted in a 7.4% decrease in the rate of visceral fat accumulation. Interestingly, the increased intake of soluble fiber was associated with a decreased accumulated visceral fat but not with decreased subcutaneous fat.

What You Can Do

You can get 10 grams of soluble fiber from eating two small apples, one cup of green peas, and half a cup of pinto beans.  Moderate activity as defined in the study is exercising vigorously for 30 minutes, two to four times a week.

Although the evidence shows that eating more soluble fiber and increasing exercise reduces visceral or belly fat, researchers still don’t know why. That’s why a study like this is so important – it gives specific information on how dietary fiber, especially soluble fiber, can affect abdominal fat deposits and weight.

What’s A Food Desert – And What Happens There?

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It’s not stretch of hot white sand.  It’s also not where you can come upon an oasis, shimmering in the heat, and find platters laden with fresh fruit like in old-time movies.

Here’s what it is:   the CDC defines a food desert as an area “that lack(s) access to affordable fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low-fat milk, and other foods that make up the full range of a healthy diet.”

 

How Does A Food Desert Affect Health?

It would seem pretty obvious that if there isn’t a readily available supply of good food for people to buy and eat then they won’t eat healthy food.

But here’s the problem:  many food deserts may not have a lot of affordable healthy food choices available, but they may have readily available and inexpensive fast food choices.

The CDC indicates that some researchers think a link exists between having easy access to affordable healthy foods and the consumption of those foods. But other studies show that even when healthier food options are available in food deserts, many people continue to make unhealthy choices based on their own personal preferences — or put more simply — because they want to.

 

Food Choices May Be Unrelated To The Availability Of Healthy Food

A study of 5,115 people,  just published in The Archives of Internal Medicine, looked at fast food and fruit and vegetable consumption compared to the availability of fast food restaurants and groceries.  The researchers found that in “food deserts,” where fast food is readily available and there are few or no supermarkets, the local population is drawn to the fast food. But even where there are supermarkets and groceries the food choices the locals make don’t seem to be based on healthy eating.

The results showed that in low-income areas, particularly among men living within one to two miles of a fast food restaurant, there’s a strong association between the availability of fast food and how much of it they consumed. But, they also found that there was no strong association between living near a supermarket and eating more fruits or vegetables.

 

Are Supermarkets Important?

The lead researcher says that it isn’t enough to expect that building supermarkets will make people shop for healthy foods in them.  She thinks that healthy foods need to be promoted and affordable and that people also need to be taught that there are better and healthier food choices available in fast food restaurants, too.  If someone chooses to go to a fast food restaurant they should have the option to find and choose food items that are “relatively more healthy as opposed to less healthy.”

However, just because there might not be a strong association between food choices and supermarkets doesn’t mean that markets aren’t important.  It might be that the market may not be stocked with an abundance of healthy food choices or that the healthier options are expensive and crowded out by an overwhelming array of unhealthier options.

 

What Is Important?

It’s not enough to just teach people what’s healthy and how to make healthy choices. The food environment is crucial and needs to support making healthy food choices easy, attractive, affordable (competitive with the “cheap” calories of fast food), and the cool choices to make.   Just like the oasis in the sandy dessert, there needs to be a welcoming oasis of healthy food choices in the “food deserts.”

 

Frosted Flakes: Do They Really Put A Tiger In Your Tank?

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I was having breakfast with a five year old who insisted on taking an individual box of Frosted Flakes from a display. Of course she would, the little box is designed to appeal to a child.

I’m not a cold cereal lover, but I have been known to grab a handful or two of those sugar coated flakes when they are sitting in front of me (without milk – it destroys the crunch).

Because I haven’t had a box of Frosted Flakes in front of me for a long time and I like to think of myself as an informed adult, I picked up the cute little royal blue box with Tony the Tiger on the front to read the nutrition and ingredients labels.

What a shocker.  I knew that Kellogg’s Sugar Frosted Flakes of Corn was not nutritionally stellar – but what a shock to read the front of the box hype and then to look at the labels.

Sugar Frosted Flakes

The cereal, first introduced in 1952 as Sugar Frosted Flakes, is described as sweet and crunchy and “packed with 10 essential vitamins and good-for-you grains that give you the great-tasting energy you need.”  The tagline reads: “It’s what fuels you up so you can play, prep and be your very best.”

Take a peek at the nutrition label.  Notice the amount of protein and fiber (or, essentially, lack of).  How much sugar is there? Look at the ingredients label.What are the first five ingredients?

My youngest son once ate an astonishing double digit number of little boxes of Frosted Flakes, without milk, at summer sleep-away camp – a story first told to me by his brothers and validated by the counselors.  Can you imagine what his behavior must have been like that day on a massive sugar overload from breakfast cereal? No wonder the camp changed its breakfast policy – and its breakfast foods!

Is it time to change your breakfast?

Road Trip? Why Not Roadmap Your Miles And Your Meals?

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Planning a road trip?  You know that you’re going to have to stop for a snack or a meal along the way.  Do you leave your food choices to chance?

I drive a lot.  I have three long road trips coming up in the next month. I know that I’m going to stop for a snack or meal —  either because I need gas; I’m bored, stiff, and tired; I’m hungry – or any combination of the above; and, quite frankly, because I love rest stops and truck stops.

The lure of a rest stop can be hard to pass up when you’ve been sitting in the car for hours on end. You walk in and you’re assaulted by an array of vending machines, candy racks, fast food, donuts, coffee, and every bottled drink under the sun. You’re a captive consumer (there’s probably no other place around that you know of to stop other than the roadside rest stop, truck stop, or gas station) – and, you crave something to:

  • Keep you energized and awake
  • Ease the boredom
  • Reward you for endless hours of driving (especially of you have complaining or fighting kids with you)
  • Bring back memories of summer road trip food you had when you were a kid (as a parent I can admit that you often give in and buy all kinds of stuff for your kids because they’re driving you crazy)

The Trap And The Danger

An endless stream of high carb, high fat, high calorie, and processed food is just begging you to plunk down your money so you can immediately indulge (watch how many people start eating the food they’ve bought before they even pay) or to take with you (in case there’s a pending famine).

The real danger – aside from the damage to your waistline – is that the high carb processed foods spike then crash your blood sugar — which ends up making you really tired and cranky.  Drowsy drivers are most definitely not safe drivers.

Cranky drivers make life miserable for everyone in the car – not a great tone to set if you’re going on vacation.

Some Ideas

  • It may take away some of the road trip spontaneity, but when you pack up your car pack some food, too.  Fill a cooler with water, fruit, yogurt, sandwiches, whatever you think you will eat and that will keep you alert and energized (aim for some complex carbs and protein).  Why not throw in some portion sized bags of nuts and popcorn, too?  Planning ahead means you’re not at the mercy of the vending machines and racks and racks of candy, chips, and baked goods.
  • Use an app or your GPS to find nearby restaurants as you drive through various communities. A little searching can help you find places with healthier options than you might find at a rest stop. This can be really helpful for anyone with allergies or special dietary requirements.
  • If you haven’t done either of the above and just want to play it by ear – or pit stop – at least have your own mental list of some good, better, and best choices of food to buy.  The danger is that the candy, chips, fries, and donuts call your name the minute you walk in the door.  If you know that you’re going to head straight for the nuts, or popcorn, or even a burger, that’s great, as long as the giant chocolate chip cookie and the bargain 32 ounce soda for 99 cents doesn’t grab you first. Try to decide what you’re going to buy (hopefully, a good choice) before you go in – and then stick to your decision.

Enjoy your road trips.